TECO's Storm Surcharge Comes Off Bills Today, Cutting About $20 From a Typical Tampa Household

The storm surcharge that has been padding Tampa Electric bills since March 2025 stops today. Starting Aug. 1, the utility is no longer collecting the 1.995-cent-per-kilowatt-hour charge, which works out to about $19.95 a month off a typical 1,000-kWh residential bill and an 11% to 12% cut overall. For the roughly 870,000 homes and businesses TECO serves across Tampa, Hillsborough County and West Central Florida, that is money back in August, the month the air conditioner never really shuts off and school supply lists come due.

The charge was scheduled to run through the end of August. It is ending a month early because the underlying costs will be fully recovered by the end of July.

What it saves, by how much power you use

The surcharge was a flat per-kilowatt-hour rate, so the savings scale with usage. A small apartment sees less. A four-bedroom house running the AC at 74 degrees sees considerably more.

Monthly usage	Monthly savings
1,000 kWh	About $19.95
2,000 kWh	About $40
3,000 kWh	Nearly $60

Commercial and industrial customers, who saw increases between 1% and 12% depending on usage, get the corresponding relief.

One practical wrinkle: the charge stops applying to power used from today forward, so the line item disappears from the bill covering August usage. Depending on your meter-read date, that is the statement landing in late August or early September, not the one sitting in your mailbox right now. Customers on Budget Billing, which smooths payments across the year, will see the change arrive gradually rather than all at once.

What the $400 million-plus paid for

The Florida Public Service Commission approved the surcharge on Feb. 4, 2025, clearing Tampa Electric to recover more than $400 million in restoration costs from the 2024 hurricane season. The company has said it invested $464 million to put the lights back on, covering damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Tropical Storm Debby and 2023's Idalia, plus replenishing its storm reserve for the next round.

Milton triggered the largest restoration deployment in the company's history. TECO brought in 9,500 workers from utilities across the United States and Canada, and says power was back to essentially all customers within a day after Helene and within seven days after Milton. Under Florida's rules, utilities cannot buy cost-effective insurance on the poles and wires most exposed to hurricanes, so they ask regulators for a temporary surcharge afterward instead. Tampa Electric does not add a markup to it.

Archie Collins, Tampa Electric's president and chief executive, said the early end reflects the company's commitment to help customers with their payments whenever it can, and that the utility heard from customers feeling squeezed by higher prices at the grocery store and the gas pump. PSC Chairman Smith called the timing welcome news, saying it delivers meaningful bill relief while making sure the utility recovers no more than the restoration costs the commission approved.

The other direction on your bill

Today's drop is the biggest single change in a year that started by going the other way. In January 2026, residential and small commercial bills rose $8.88 per 1,000 kWh: $5.51 in base rates, $1.66 in fuel, and $1.71 in other charges and taxes. Even accounting for that, a 1,000-kWh household is paying noticeably less this month than it did in July.

The next scheduled change is smaller. In its 2024 rate case, TECO asked for base-rate increases across 2025, 2026 and 2027; the PSC approved $185.9 million, $86.6 million and $9.1 million respectively, with the 2027 step tied to projects placed in service during 2025 and 2026. That last adjustment is due with the first billing cycle of 2027.

Households still carrying a past-due balance from the surcharge months can set up a payment arrangement or ask about assistance programs through Tampa Electric's payment assistance page, or by calling the company weekdays between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. And if the 2026 hurricane season does serious damage to the grid, the utility can go back to the commission for a new surcharge. Nothing like that has been filed.

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